Selby takes place of Allen in World Mixed Doubles tournament
MARK Selby will take part in the World Mixed Doubles tournament this weekend after Mark Allen pulled out for “personal reasons”.
The Jester from Leicester will pair up with women’s World No.3 Rebecca Kenna for the tournament in Manchester.
Northern Irishman Allen still plans to play in next week’s Tour Championship in the same city, the final event before players head to the Crucible for the World Snooker Championship.
The Pistol has been replaced by four-time Crucible winner Selby, who also played with Kenna in 2022.
They reached the final two years ago, only to lose to Australian Neil Robertson and Mink Nutcharut of Thailand.
That duo will be reunited to defend their title, with the rest of the draw made up of the pairing of Judd Trump and Baipat Siripaporn, alongside world champion Luca Brecel and Reanne
Evans.
Allen, 38, will still take part in the Tour Championship next week, where he has been drawn against John Higgins in the first round. But his absence does not detract from the anticipation of taking part in the World Mixed Doubles for Kenna.
“I’m very excited this time round,” she told Metro.
“I was a lot more nervous last time but I’m more settled now. “It was right at the start of my journey on tour, so it was a bit overwhelming last time.
“I’m just looking forward to it this time.
“It was such a great event last time and everyone seemed to like it and it’s one of the last big events [on tour] for me.” Selby’s spot at the prestigious Tour Championship in Manchester was confirmed without the four-time world champion playing a shot. Hossein Vafaei’s 5-0 defeat to Ding Junhui and Kyren Wilson’s 5-2 loss to Judd Trump in the quarter-finals of the World Open in Yushan meant Selby could not be knocked out of the final qualifiers with the top 12 on the sport’s one-year list making up the field.
The Tour Championship in Manchester will determine who goes into the 48th World Championship at the Crucible in Sheffield next month as snooker’s World No.1.
Ronnie O’Sullivan is only 18,000 points clear of new World Open champion Trump on the latest provisional list.
The Tour Championship is also set to finalise the order of the top 16 seedings for the sport’s marquee event.
Selby has been drawn against fellow Englishman Gary Wilson in his first round match in the Tour Championship, with the winner facing Zang Anda of China in the quarter-final.
His fellow Leicester player Tom Ford, left, faces a tough first hurdle against the former world champion Mark Williams.
If he manages to beat the veteran Welshman, Ford will then face Trump in the last eight.